August, The heat is going down but the work is up!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

This last week has been another good week! 

Monday we taught Karen and the Trejo family they were both good lessons. The Trejo family really are amazing people.  They have accepted a date to be baptized!!  (Elder Reisner didn't share the date with me though!) 

Tuesday we had a a really great opportunity. We got a call from an Hermana that is either less active or doesn't go to our ward and she told us that her nephew wanted a blessing from us. She said he wasn't a member so we thought ok we'll go and give him a blessing. Then we show up to the house and there's like 6 people there and they ask us if we would like to share a message and we're like well of course we do!! So we share a message about faith and how people need faith to be healed and then we gave him a blessing. Then we just asked can we come again and talk to you guys and they said yes! So 6 new investigators in one night! Which was good because that day we were knocking and trying to find all day with no luck!
Wednesday we taught a few lessons and just tried to find new investigators.  

Thursday was a good day! We had district meeting and then we had a district lunch because it was our district leader's last meeting.  Then we had correlation it was a good one!  Hermano Schleske needed our help because he has been having a hard time lately so we did what we could for him.  Then we had dinner with the Stake President and he called the other Stake President and we got permission to baptize Patty and Sergio! It was so exciting! Their baptism is scheduled for Sunday! Then we had a lesson with Juan and with a family. The lesson with Juan was really good! We told him he could be an example to his brothers and sisters and his whole family by being baptized and he was really excited about that!

Friday we had some lessons, biked and it was a good day! 

Saturday was a finding day and we worked with some less actives.  

Sunday we had Stake Conference and it was a really good one! We had the Temple President there and President Becerra and his wife speak it was a really good conference. The theme was la obra missional oh sorry translation missionary work! Anyway, President Becerra talked about how his grandfather joined the church and how much impact that had on his whole family.  Then Sister Becerra talked about having the members help us missionaries find. We also had 2 members of the Stake Presidency speak. One talked about having an eternal family and plan of salvation. President Esquerra talked about how he is a convert and how our example can help people want to know more about the gospel. The Temple President talked about how we need to do everything we can to be worthy of a temple recommend and be sealed in the temple.  His wife bore her testimony and the president translated it because she doesn't speak Spanish.  We also had some lessons on Sunday.  So it was a really good week and I learned a lot! I love you all!

Love, Elder Reisner

Another good week!

Dear family and friends,

This week has been another good week!  It has been really hot here over 100 degrees mostly but we still keep working!  

Monday we had a noche de hogar and we had it about faith. Elder Bowes taught a lesson and I did the activity. We had all these chairs scattered all over the gym and then we got some members and told them to walk through the chairs by faith. A lot of them were really apprehensive but they were able to do it! What we did is right as they start walking we move the chairs so they don't walk into them. Then they take the blindfold off and see the path.  I told them to look you can do hard things as long as you have faith! It was a really great noche de hogar! 

Tuesday we set up some new things so we can start finding better. We are going to start an English class so we can find more investigators. We will also teach the members of our ward English if they want to learn. We also got permission from Walmart to set up a booth in front of the store.  Then we can contact all the people that go to Walmart and give them cards, flyers, pamphlets, Book of Mormons and all the other stuff we have. We have been using these booths in the mission mostly at colleges but we thought since a lot of people go to Walmart why not try there?!

So we are still doing good and still having a lot of lessons!!!  Patty and Sergio want to get baptized and have a date set for the 26th of August! We are going to talk to President Esquerra (Stake President) to see if they can be baptized in our ward. They live outside our ward boundaries and so we need to get permission from our Stake President and their Stake President as well as the Bishop and President Becerra.  They really want to keep coming to this ward because they have their family in this ward.  They have been coming to our ward for 10 weeks straight!  

The Trejo family is a really great family! They went to church last Sunday and they are reading and praying. We have an appointment with them tonight and we are hoping to give them a baptismal date!

Maria is another investigator that came to church and wants to be baptized. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and she really liked church! We hope that these investigators will continue to progress!  

We also did better this week at finding because last week we didn't really find anyone new to teach. Anyway, I hope that all of you are doing well and that you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Reisner

San Gabriel is super great!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

This last week was another good week but let me tell you why.  Monday we had a noche de hogar with the Reyes family and it was great!  

Tuesday we taught some lessons and tried to find. We also had to pass off a really great investigator to the English elders because she doesn't speak Spanish so that was a little sad.  

Wednesday we taught and found and blessed a less active lady's home and family.  

Thursday we taught Juan and he is doing good but he is just so difficult at the same time!! He knows what he needs to do then he just doesn't do it! So, we may have to drop him which is sad but necessary. :-( 

Friday was crazy bike day! We biked between 20-30 miles!! We were able to contact some referrals and teach some but boy was I exhausted at the end of the day! 

Saturday was a good day!! We taught a bunch and we had a good meeting with our ward mission leader. Also, we have an investigator Silvia that we taught. She really wants to go to church but she has 12 sicknesses and spends the day with her family.  So for that she says she can't go to church on Sunday. We are going to have a noche de hogar and she said she could come to that. 

Sunday we had church and we taught some lessons and did some finding. We had a good lesson with Patty and Sergio and we really think they will be able to be baptized by the end of this month!! Also, we went to an investigators house. Her name is Maria and we thought we were going to have to drop her.  We actually  helped her to understand that she knows the Book of Mormon is true! She accepted the invitation to be baptized and to come to church the next Sunday which was completely unexpected!! We also are teaching a great family and they are coming to the noche de hogar and are reading the Book of Mormon. They are also going to church and accepted the invitation to be baptized!! So a lot of good things are happening in this area! Especially now that we are inviting everyone to be baptized!  It really helps us to know who is prepared to receive the gospel and who isn't. Then we can work effectively and really teach and baptize the people who are prepared to receive the gospel and really fulfill our purpose!  Anyway, it's really exciting!! I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Reisner

July = Summer, Heat & Zone Conference

Dear Family and Friends, 

 

So transfers were last Sunday and I am still going to be here in San Gabriel which is what I wanted because so many good things are happening!! We have found a great family to teach and people are really close to taking the step to be baptized! Elder Bowes and I really get along well and so that makes it even better! :-) So this last week nothing too exciting happened mostly we are just teaching finding and eating with members! I didn't have anything strange this last week to eat either but it was all yummy! 

The exciting thing that happened is that we had Zone Conference and it was really good! Sister Becerra talked about how we can know if we are receiving revelation and how we can better receive it. When we are moving and acting or studying it out in our mind we need to listen for the revelation. Because we can't just stop and be like what do I do now? Where do we go? What do we teach? We have to think about it and then just act. A lot of the times it doesn't matter; what matters more is that we do make a descision.  

Then President Becerra told us about the doctrine about why we need to ask people to be baptized in the first lesson. That mission wide we are having a problem with not inviting people to baptism. So now what we are doing is right in the first lesson we are going to invite everyone to be baptized.  We will do it during the first lesson. Not to start off the lesson, we are going to tell them our purpose, how they can get a testimony, then we ask them when you have recieved this testimony will you be baptized?  I think this is great because then we can see who is really ready to recieve the gospel and who really wants to make the step towards baptism.  It was great because twice after Zone Conference we had two first lessons and we invited them just like that and they said yes that they would be baptized when they recieve a testimony!!! Then we did role plays and did the way we can invite people to be baptized right at the beginning of the lesson.  

Then we had the Assistant to the President give a lesson about locking our hearts because there has been a problem with missionaries "falling in love" or meeting "the one" on their missions. He told us to lock our hearts and to only love people like the Savior would love them and not to be looking for a wife.  President Becerra told us some of you have been out so long you forgot what true beauty is haha! Thankfully I have not had this problem but it was good advice nonetheless.  

We also had a lot of missionaries leaving within the next few weeks so we had 5 missionaries who were leaving bear their testimonies. Their testimonies were so powerful the Spirit was so strong during Zone Conference and I learned a lot! 

Also, something else that we did is Elder Bowes and I taught the third hour combined Priesthood and Relief Society lesson on Sunday. We had a member MTC and we talked about how missionaries are there for the spiritual conversion and members are there for the social conversion. We need to work together in order for a person to begin the conversion process. So we did some role plays with the members and showed them that it was really easy to invite people to listen to the gospel or go to church or an activity at church or to listen to the missionaries. Then we did a role play that if the friend of the member doesn't like us then they can just throw us under the bus! So for that role play/demonstration I was the missionary, Elder Bowes was the member and we had a member be Elder Bowes friend. What the situation was is we finished the lesson then I the missionary would say something weird that would make it so that the friend wouldn't want to listen to us anymore.  So I asked so what do you think of what we talked about? The member said it was interesting then I said well wait, I forgot to tell you something. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit it was a pineapple, a big pineapple and this pineapple was really good. Then Elder Bowes cut me off we pretended to pray and then I left. Then Elder Bowes said sorry those guys know a lot but they're weird and they don't represent me. So we told the members to keep their friends and if their friends don't like us they can shove us under the bus!  It was a lot of fun to teach this lesson and I think the members really understand their role better in helping the missionary work progress.  

Other than that we've still just been teaching and finding a ton!!! I know it's only because Heavenly Father is preparing these people for the gospel and I am so blessed to be serving where I am now. I love you all!

Love, Elder Reisner

Another MIRACLE Week!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

This last week was crazy!!! It started with us finding 2 new investigators after preperation day was over and then trying to find and teach people.  

On Tuesday we taught a few lessons and didn't find anyone new to teach. Unfortunately, we have 2 less invetigators to teach and focus on. That gives us a lot more time to find some new investigators.  

Wednesday was super great!! We had a lot of appointments and we found 2 new investigators! Something funny we found out that the FLDS church sends their "revelations" to all the bishops in the world. Our bishop got some mail from them and he said we could see what it was because he didn't have time to look at that mail. So we did it was weird stuff and he told us to burn it so we are! We also taught a part member family and the hermano that is a member said he didn't have ganas I mean desires to go to church. So we are going to try and help them see why it is important to read and to go to church.  

Thursday we found a family of 6 to teach!!! It was super cool they were formers that I had never met. They said they were learning 3 years ago and the missionaries just left and never came back! So of course now we are teaching them and they told us to come back on Friday to teach them again! We also taught some more lessons to investigators! We started teaching Juan again. He is doing good and he has just been so busy that he couldn't meet with us.  His work is in landscaping so there busiest time is in the summer. 

Friday we had 6 lessons! Also another new investigator!! We also taught one of the friends of our ward mission leader and had to do a member split for an hour because we had 2 appointments at the same time! Saturday we had a mini mission with the youth in our ward that we didn't even know about! We got a text at 8:30 in the morning and then we found out it was at 9:15 in the morning! We actually had 2 young men so we did a split and did some visits and then we had a devotional at the Stake Center. It was really good and the kids really learned a lot from this mini mission experience!! We also had correlation and 2 appointments and one with another family of 3!! So in total we found 13 new investigators!!! 

Sunday we had church and taught some lessons and visited the members and I ate Ox Tail. Yes, a tail of an ox it was yummy!! Then we realized we had the best week as far as numbers and teaching go!!! We had 23 lessons and 13 new investigators!!! We only have this success though because we are finding the people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us. We are also doing all that we can to be obedient and focus on the work and keep moving forward!! I am excited for how this next week will turn out. This is the last week of the transfer and I hope I get to stay for another one because a lot of good things are happening in this area!!

I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Que les vaya bien!

Love Elder Reisner

The Miracle Baptisms!!!!!!!!

Dear Family and Friends

This last week has been great!!! On Monday we took bikes and just went and tried to find people. When Preparation Day was over we also taught a less active.

Tuesday we had a busy day we had 2 dinner appointments and other lessons. They were all jam packed together so we were just running around like crazy!  

Wednesday we walked and tried to do everything we could to find people because a lot of our appointments have been canceling. So we were out in the 104 degree heat tracting it was pretty successful and we got some return appointments. Then we had mutual and we had appointments at the same time so we did a member split. I went with Hermnao Lopez to go to appointments. What was the miracle about this day is Carmen and Isaac got their marriage license! They still had to have the ceremony for it to be valid so we had to contact the Stake President so he could authorize the bishop to marry them. We weren't sure if that was going to happen. Hermano Lopez and I went to a part member family and they didn't read so we read with them. Then we went to Carmen and Isaac and talked about their baptism. We made the baptism program and they wanted me and Elder Bowes to baptize them!!!!!!! That was cool but I kind of wanted a member to do it so they could be more connected with the ward. They will have other opportunities to get those connections!! 

Then on Thursday we had District Meeting which was really good. We talked about our area and our goals it was really great! Then we went tracting and found 3 families to teach! They all said we could come back and teach them it was super great!!! Then we were, well I was stressing out about the wedding and the Stake President hadn't called our bishop back. So we called the Stake President and he answered the phone and said that our bishop was authorized to do the marriage. We called the bishop and he was surprised that President Esquerra answered the phone.  He said Friday night at 8 he could perform the wedding so that was another miracle. Then we went to Carmen and Isaac to talk about their wedding. They were super excited and said they should have been married 20 years ago! 

Then Friday we had a lesson with Karen and it went good. She is finally reading but still not coming to church. So we asked why and her mom doesn't want her to go alone. We are going to find a young woman from our ward to help friendship her and bring her to church.  Then we had a mission conference and activity. The mission conference was sooo great!! Elder and Sister Kasteller talked to us about how we need to trust in the Lord and have real growth. They also talked about that sometimes we may be down on the mission but really all our struggles and challenges will be for our good and for our growth! Then Elder Hendrickson an Assistant to the President talked about how if we want progressing investigators we have to be progressing missionaries. That will help us so that we can progress with our investigators.  Then Sister Becerra talked about how we need to have faith to find teach and baptize.  Then President Becerra gave a really powerful talk about how sometimes we need to have a big trial to increase our faith. He talked about the widow who fed the Prophet Samuel. After that we then had a discussion of how we need to put the Lords will before our own and we need to have that great faith so that we can find, teach, baptize and double the baptisms! Then we had an activity it was sooo fun!!! We had all sorts of water games a water balloon toss, water kickball and everyone got wet! President Becerra looked for the dry missionaries and told them to come give him a hug while other missionaries got a bucket of water and dumped it on them!! It was funny! Then we had a basketball three point shooting contest. All the Zone Leaders picked the best 2-4 players from their zone. They shot 10 shots and whoever made the most won and guess who won?  It was President Becerra!! He made 8 out of 10 it was cool!! Then we went back to working and we got a few appointments. Then we had the wedding and actually for such short notice we had a lot of members there to support Carmen and Isaac for their decision to get married!!! 

Then Saturday we went and found and did some service by helping a less active with the headlights in his car. Then we had weekly planning.  Then Carmen and Isaac had their baptism interviews. They are so humble, they have been through a lot of hard things. To top it all off on Saturday their vehicle broke down! Hermano Lopez was able to pick them up for their interview so everything still worked out. Elder Alworth the District Leader almost cried because of how humble they are and how willing they are to get baptized. We then had a dinner appointment and did some finding.  

Sunday we had church and we had 4 investigators at church Carmen, Isaac, Patty and Sergio!!! We made programs and invited all the members to the baptism.  We then had a lesson with Patty and Sergio they are close to being baptized as well.  They haven't gotten an answer yet if that's what they should do.  Then we had the baptism it was crazy! We didn't know if there were baptism clothes so we had to go to another ward to get clothes. We picked 3 different jumpsuits for Isaac and thank goodness one of them fit!! The last one he tried of course! Then we had the baptism service, the talks were amazing and the Spirit was so strong! I had the opportunity to baptize Carmen. She said the water was too hot so we ran the cold water and I was in the font trying to mix the water around it was kind of funny to see! Then I had to do the ordinance twice because she didn't go down all the way. The second time she did it was great! Isaac was so funny he wanted to be baptized as soon as he got to the stake center he said estoy listo = I'm ready! They really were so ready and it was a pleasure to teach and to baptize them and to see all the miracles that took place because Elder Bowes and I exercised our faith we saw miracles happen!!! I know that when we are doing everything we can to be faithful we have to act. I know when we are exercising our faith and doing the things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do then we can see the miracles! I love you all so much and I hope you are all having a great summer!

Que les Vaya Bien!

Love, Elder Reisner

Me and Elder Chadwick

Me and Elder Betty

Me and Elder Lerma "Zone Leader"

Me and Elder Resabala

Retake

Me and the Zone Leaders, District Leader and Elder Resabala

Me being, well me

Outside the apartment

I am sun burnt!!

Having Fun

Pulling faces

Bored (during lunch)

HaHa

Practice shot

Me being cute? Mom thinks YES!!

Choose the Sprite!!

When in doubt pinky out!

Classic me

Almost classic - love the moustache ring!

Shout out to my USU Eastern friends!!!